George A. Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn

George Armstrong Custer was elevated to the rank of General by a
battlefied commission during the Civil War. He had emerged from West
Point at the bottom of his class where he had amassed a huge number of
demerits. His success in the Civil War might be attributed
to his unorthodox methods and the wild charges he led with no
concern for the scouting reports, if he ever read them. He had the
highest casualty figures among the Union division commanders. However,
he himself emerged unscathed. He personally accepted the white flag
of surrender from Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox.

After the war, he was stripped of his battlefield commission
and returned to the regular army as a captain. He was assigned to Texas
to restore order, a task he felt was inconsequential. In 1867 he was
promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in the 7th Cavalry. This began his career
as an Indian fighter. He was not well loved, drove both men and horses
hard while he would go off, alone or with a small group, to hunt.

In 1867 he was brought up on charges of abandoning his command (to visit
his wife) and having (other) deserters shot on the spot, sans hearing.
He was convicted, on both counts, and sentenced to a year's suspension
from rank and pay, including forfeiture of salary. But 10 months later
he was reinstated by General Sheridan to lead the campaign against the
Southern Cheyenne in Oklahoma Territory.

It was in Oklahoma that the unusual strategy of a winter campaign would
be tried, to catch the Indians when they had become immobile, in their
winter camps. The culmination of this campaign was the massacre of Black
Kettle's Southern Cheyennes in the Battle of the Washita, November 27,
1868, with 103 Cheyennes dead in the mud and snow. The animals were all
slaughtered, at Custer's order. All captured possessions were burned.

Custer's luck had held. He had had no scouting done before the dawn
attack and had no knowledge that thousands of other southern plains
Indians were in the immediate area. The effect of this was a result,
the small detachment led by Major Joel Elliot, which had ridden off in
pursuit of escaping Indians, was wiped out. Custer returned to his post
without even searching for these men. Their fate was not discovered for
two weeks until their remains were chanced upon. However, Custer had a
way of making himself a public hero, and therefore difficult to control
by his superiors.

The campaign in the northern plains was to be a winter campaign also.
However, the weather was so bad that it was greatly delayed. A three pronged "pincer"
attack was planned. However the Sioux defeated General Crook's forces in the
Battle of the Rosebud on June 17. On the morning of the 18th, the Indians saw
the soldiers returning south, leaving the field of battle. Thus one of the
columns of the pincers was eliminated.

Custer's luck did not hold this time either. He would not believe his scouts
about the size of the camp he was about to attack. He divided his forces to
attack from two directions and thus was undermanned in both places. When the young
scout, Curley, a Crow, made his way back to the
waiting riverboat on the Big Horn River to tell the story of the battle, he was
not believed, nor were other Indian versions of the battle. The myth took precedence over the truth. Only recently has his
version of the battle been found to contain the basic truths, from new
archaeological work on the site.

The man and the battle have attained mythological proportions, in large
measure because the white man lost. It represented a denial of the
entire premise of Manifest Destiny.
The Northern Plains tribes were challenging the entire religious basis
for the settlement of the west.
Walt Whitman, upon hearing the news, wrote the poem From Far
Dakota's Cañons and rushed it to the newspaper office for
publication.

In contrast, this battle does not have a large place in the Sioux
history, as they see it. In fact, the Indians knew immediately that they
would be badly punished for this victory. They immediately broke camp
and split up, to make it difficult for the U.S. Cavalry to track them
all.

A second's silence. Custer dropped his head,
His lips slow moving as when prayers are said--
Two words he breathed--"God and Elizabeth,"
Then shook his long locks in the face of death
And with a final gesture turned away
To join that fated few who stood at bay.
Ah! deeds like that the Christ in man reveal
Let Fame descend her throne at Custer's shrine to kneel.

Photographs from the National Archives taken during Custer's campaigns
and found in the Gallery of the Frontier and the PBS The West websites.